Recovery Console in windows 2000

Recovery Console

The Advanced Options menu can help if the problem is with a faulty device driver or system service. However, if the problem goes deeper than that, the next tool to use is the Recovery Console.

Use it when the operating system does not start properly or hangs during the load. The Recovery Console does not use a GUI, and with it you can access the FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file systems. You can use a limited group of DOS-like commands at this point to recover a failed system. These commands are listed and described in the following tables.

Emergency Repair Process

If options on the Advanced Options menu fail to recover the system and the Recovery Console fails, your next option is the Emergency Repair Process. You only want to use this option as a last resort because it restores the system to the state it was in immediately after the Windows 2000 installation. All changes since the installation will be lost. The process uses an Emergency Repair Disk (ERD), but the disk does not contain the same information as does the Windows NT ERD (Windows NT Emergency Repair Disk).

The Windows NT ERD contains a copy of the registry that you should update any time you make significant changes to the registry. You can then use the disk to repair a corrupted registry, restoring it to its state when you last updated the ERD. The Windows 2000 ERD contains information about your current installation, but does not contain a copy of the registry because it is too large to fit on a single floppy disk. Rather the ERD only points to a folder on the hard drive where the registry was backed up when Windows 2000 was installed. This folder is %SystemRoot%\repair, and its contents are shown in the following figure. Using the ERD to recover from a corrupted registry returns you to the installation version of the registry, and you lose all changes to the registry since that time. Because of the way the ERD works, you do not need to remake the disk once you’ve created it. Before a problem occurs, follow these directions to create the disk:

1. Click Start, trace to Programs, Accessories, and System Tools, and then click Backup. The Backup dialog box appears with the Welcome tab selected. Select Emergency Repair Disk.

2. The Backup tab and the Emergency Repair Diskette dialog box open. Check the check box to have the system back up your registry to a folder under the Repair folder, %SystemRoot%\repair\RegBack.

3. Click OK to create the disk. Label the disk Windows 2000 Emergency Repair Disk, and keep it in a safe place. If your hard drive fails, you can use the disk to restore the system, including system files, boot files, and the registry, to its state at the end of the Windows 2000 installation. To do that follow these steps:

1. Boot the PC from the four Windows 2000 setup disks. The Setup menu appears. Select option R.

2. When the Windows 2000 Repair Options screen opens, select option R.

3. You are instructed to insert the Emergency Repair Disk. Follow the instructions on the screen to repair the installation.

If this process does not work, then your next option is to reinstall Windows 2000. Be sure to use ScanDisk to scan the drive surface for errors before you do the installation.

If you suspect that a virus has damaged the hard drive file system, also use the FDISK/MBR command to replace the master boot program in case it has been corrupted by the virus.

Windows 2000 also offers a utility called InoculateIT Antivirus AVBoot, which is a command-line tool that can scan memory, the MBR sector, and operating system boot sectors for viruses.